MIAMI, July 21 (UPI) -- What educators call "distance education" is booming and the future holds nothing but more increases and advances.
Colleges and universities offered courses to off-campus sites via audio, video or computer technology 2.9 million courses in the 2000-2001 school year, more than doubling the figures three years earlier, a study by the Department of Education shows.
Another large group of college and universities indicated they planned to offer distance education for the first time in the next three years.
But do those classes work? Most educators think they do, but it's going to be hard to prove.
"A program to evaluate distance education would be prohibitively costly," said Bernard Green, a key participant in the federal study.
He said a test would probably be used, but researchers could follow "bunches of people" over several years to see how successful they were in their field.
"I'm sure that certain policymakers think using technology is good in that it increases access to education for thousands who have never had it," he said.
It's hard to find anybody who doesn't believe in it.
Bruce Chaloux, the Southern Regional Education Board's expert on distance education, is a believer. He says there has been an effort to prevent diploma mills from taking advantage of it and it has been mostly successful.
"There are good strategies in place to work against that," he said. "There are individuals who want to use unscrupulous tactics to recruit students. We have seen that in almost every aspect of higher education.
"The Internet created a little bit of a Wild West mentality. There are folks who will try to say, 'Hey consumer. You need a college credit? We can provide it,'" Chaloux said.
He said the states are working had to control the problem.
"Are they out there? Sure they are. It's a problem, but it's not as bad as we thought it was," he said.
He said there is a potential downside consisting of concerns about the dropout rate.
He said it "remains higher than it should be in my view. Our ability to provide support services are better but we don't have it nailed down yet."
Financial aid and tuition policies remain a problem. Financial aid is difficult because of federal regulations and tuition policies are inconsistent.
Chaloux pointed out that an electronic student at Florida State has to pay much more if he lives 20 miles north of the campus in Georgia than if he lives 300 miles away in Miami.
He said the Southern Regional Education Board is supporting electronic tuition rates under which the cost would be the same for any location in the United States.
Above all, Chaloux and just about everyone else believes there is no limit to the future of the concept.
"Given the nature of this, we are looking at data from 2001 and my sense -- and it is shared by Bernie (Green) and others -- is that those numbers would continue to be higher this year," he said.
"More institutions are offering distance education, but more importantly, more students are taking advantage of it," said John Bailey, who is in charge of the Department of Education's technology policy.
"It's not replacing traditional education. Institutions are using it as a tool to reach new students by reducing time, cost and geographic location constraints," Bailey said.
"We do think these trends are going to keep increasing as our economy becomes more of a knowledge-based economy," he said.
Bailey said the study showed the nation's colleges and universities, both 2- and 4-year institutions, offered 127,400 courses through distance education. There are 1,330 degree and certificate programs designed for completion entirely online.
Among colleges and universities that offered distance education courses, public 4-year institutions were most likely to offer degree programs with 48 percent. Of the private institutions, 33 percent offered complete distance-education programs, and they were offered by 20 percent of the 2-year schools.
Among the institutions that offered distance education in 2000-2001, 60 percent participated in some kind of distance education consortium. Of those that took part in a consortium, 75 percent said they were in a state organization.
